Our last day in Panama started with a quiet morning at sea as National Geographic Explorer headed towards the easternmost portion of the country, the mighty Darien region. Completely covered by nearly impenetrable mangrove stands, extremely lush tropical rain forest, and rugged mountains, the Darien proved too much for the builders of the Pan-American Highway, and as a result this is the only place between Alaska and the southern end of Argentina where the road is interrupted.
But before we got there we learned useful tips and information about expedition-style photography form our Lindblad-National Geographic certified photo instructor David Cothran and form National Geographic photographer Kike Calvo; they explained how we could improve our photography and take better advantage of our cameras. We also had the great opportunity to learn more about the very same area we are traveling through and of the rest of Latin America from former president of Colombia Cesar Gaviria. His privileged knowledge and points of view greatly enhanced our understanding of the region.
The Darien is home to the Embera people and in order to visit them we boarded several local boats and headed to La Chunga village. La Chunga is a small community of about 250 souls and numerous small kids and several adults were at the dock to greet us, all dressed with their traditional loincloths and colorful skirts. The Embera love to decorate their faces and bodies with designs painted using vegetable inks that last for four or five days and practically everyone in town was a living art gallery. They showed us many examples of their culture, including some dances and ceremonies, music, and clothing. They offered for sale many beautiful handicrafts and we all purchased amazing baskets, wooden sculptures or masks of great beauty and made with extraordinary skill. Laughter was constantly heard and it was hard to tell which group of people was more interested in the other; the kids were particularly fascinated by Kike’s drone and the expression in their faces when they first saw the thing flying up was priceless!
We eventually came back to our comfortable floating home after an adventurous ride in the local boats and prepared to leave Panama behind and continue our expedition off the west coast of South America.
